Uncertainty & Risk Taking Training

Risk and uncertainty have suddenly become sexy haven’t they? A two pronged attack by popular books like Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink on the one hand and a top-down battering by the forces of economic uncertainty on the other have got us all thinking about how risk and uncertainty dominate our lives.

This is interesting to me because when I started working professionally as a keynote speaker way back in 2005 I would say that the majority of the people I spoke to didn’t believe that their lives were particularly uncertain at all. Perhaps it took the realisation that the money in their current accounts were not actually 100% safe to wake some people up from this slumber.

Indeed, if there is going to be a positive take-away from this potential lost decade it may be the understanding that uncertainty actually dominates every aspect of our lives – all the time! So the best thing we can do is start understanding how it works and what that means for the way we make decisions in business and life.

This speech identifies the source of risk and uncertainty in the fabric of the universe before looking at its effect on us all economically, psychologically and culturally.

It takes the audience on a journey through the butterflies and black swans of chaos before concluding that a certain world would be a boring one! Thus, it is the way in which we rise to the challenge of the unknown and embrace risk and uncertainty that defines who we are.

Along the way it touches on the real truth of risk management – that uncertainty and risk will eventually take their toll on us all. Everything will end at some point so ultimately it’s a question not of promising immortality, but being realistic about this and its implications.

Suitable For: People with some knowledge of risk, particularly in finance and similar, who want a thought-provoking opening or close to their day/session. The speech is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally impactful for those who are already interested in the subject but it is also in many ways, my most personal and emotional speech with the ambition of moving and rousing an audience in the middle of hard times. Works in 30/45/50 minute forms.